1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a heat-dissipating mechanism for an electronic device, more particularly to a heat-dissipating mechanism that is convenient to disassemble and assemble and that is easy to clean.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, a heat-generating element 12 (such as a central processing unit or a graphics processing chip) within a housing 11 of a conventional notebook computer 1 will generate a large amount of heat during operation. A heat-dissipating module 13 is therefore required to dissipate the heat generated by the heat-generating element 12 to the outside of the housing 11, so as to prevent crashing of the notebook computer 1 due to the heat. However, since there are dust or suspended particles in the air, when air passes through a fan 131 and heat-dissipating fins 132 of the heat-dissipating module 13, dust will adhere to the fan 131 and the heat-dissipating fins 132. After a period of use of the notebook computer 1, the problem of dust accumulation will aggravate, resulting in blocking of air passages in the heat-dissipating module 13 and obstructed airflow. This in turn results in deterioration of the heat-dissipating efficiency. As a consequence, the notebook computer 1 may crash due to overheating of the heat-generating element 12.
Furthermore, since the temperature of the heat-generating element 12 will continue to rise due to obstructed airflow, a sensing element (not shown) in the notebook computer 1 will cause the fan 131 to operate at an increased rotational speed to increase airflow volume. This will result in a reduction in the service life of the fan 131, and the reliability of the heat-dissipating module 13 is accordingly lowered.
The fan 131, the heat-dissipating fins 132, and a heat pipe 133 of the heat-dissipating module 13 are generally disposed within a casing 130. When it is desired to clean the fan 131 and the heat-dissipating fins 132, or the interior of the casing 130, it is necessary to remove the casing 130 of the heat-dissipating module 13 from the housing 11 so that cleaning can be done. During the removal process, it is first necessary to remove a keyboard set 111 and a cover plate 112 from a body 110 of the housing 11 before removing screws 134 to permit removal of the casing 130 of the heat-dissipating module 13. Generally, a heat-dissipating paste (not shown) is applied to a heat-dissipating sheet 135 (see FIG. 4) disposed on a bottom face of the casing 130 and connected to the heat pipe 133 to serve as a heat conducting medium between the heat-dissipating sheet 135 and the heat-generating element 12. Thus, when the casing 130 of the heat-dissipating module 13 is removed from the body 110 of the housing 11, the heat-dissipating paste between the heat-dissipating sheet 135 and the heat-generating element 12 will be damaged. If subsequent handling is not done properly, the heat generated by the heat-generating element 12 cannot be effectively transmitted to the heat-dissipating sheet 135 through the heat-dissipating paste after the heat-dissipating module 13 is re-assembled to the body 110 of the housing 11, thereby resulting in poor heat dissipation. Moreover, since it is necessary for the heat-dissipating sheet 135 to exert a certain pressure on the heat-generating element 12, if the casing 130 is secured to the body 110 with an insufficient or uneven force, contact between the heat-dissipating sheet 135 and the heat-generating element 12 will be defective, which will in turn result in poor heat dissipation. Furthermore, since the fan 131 is connected to a lead wire 136 having a power plug portion 137 provided at a distal end thereof, when the heat-dissipating module 13 is assembled to or removed from the body 110 of the housing 11, it is further necessary to plug or unplug the power plug portion 137 into or from a power socket (not shown) of the body 110 in order to complete assembly or removal of the heat-dissipating module 13, thereby adding to the inconvenience of the removal process.
Since the process of removing the heat-dissipating module 13 from the housing 11 is complicated, cleaning of the fan 131, the heat-dissipating fins 132, and the interior of the casing 130, and replacement of the fan 131 in the event of a malfunction are rather complicated and inconvenient.